There is a general assumption, especially in North America and Europe, that the Catholic Church's insistence on a male priesthood is an obscure anomaly, which endures only because a Polish pope has refused to move with the times.

The existence of suffering in a world created by a good and almighty God — "the problem of pain" — is a fundamental theological dilemma, and perhaps the most serious objection to the Christian religion.

In order to see clearly that New Age practices, like Transcendental Meditation and centering prayer, depart from the Catholic tradition, Father Dreher outlines the differences between Christian spirituality and Eastern spirituality.